"I received my American Baha'i today and was disheartened to note that in the US there were 111 enrollments of both youth (15+) and adults for December and January, and the "In Memoriam" section listed 98 deaths. That's a net increase of 13 believers in two months.
We also appear to be on track for having the smallest number of enrollments in my Baha'i life - 638 between the first of May and the end of January, which would give us about 850 for the year. I know this has been hashed out here multiple times, but it still breaks my heart." ~ Justice St. Rain ~
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| Dirty Stagnant Water |
Right on! People are increasingly seeing though the facade. Seeing that the Baha'i World Faith, the product, isn't what it's purported to be. That it's a religion with additives which are spiritually unhealthy. Such as outdated, anachronistic, and inappropriate labelling of one's fellow human beings such as Shoghi Effendi himself engaged in: "Diabolical, malevolent, deluded, shameless apostate, infamous, insidious, vile whisperer, Antichrist, the living embodiment of wickedness, cupidity and deceit, blasphemous, unspeakably repugnant, perfidious, treacherous, despicable, blind, the most shameless, vicious relentless apostate, the incarnation of Satan, fiendish ingenuity and guile, infernal, nefarious, defectors, betrayers." Shoghi used such lovely adjectives to describe his own family members, his own parents included! Until Baha'is leave behind such backward thinking, as well as those antiquated religious ideologies with seek to justify such backward thinking, humanity would be better off without Baha'i. Until Baha'is actually begin to understand what the oneness of humanity truly signifies and begin to treat their fellow human beings in a manner which shows they truly see this oneness as reality, see that there is no one to convert, they will continue to bemoan the fact that entry by troops seems ever further away. In reality entry by troops was only ever a warped pie in the sky Utopian delusion.
Larry Rowe
Source : TRB
Another example of bahai scripture that is widely ignored in the bahai community:
ReplyDeletehttp://reference.bahai.org/en/t/ab/SAB/sab-8.html
"In every dispensation, there hath been the commandment of fellowship and love, but it was a commandment [21] limited to the community of those in mutual agreement, not to the dissident foe. In this wondrous age, however, praised be God, the commandments of God are not delimited, not restricted to any one group of people, rather have all the friends been commanded to show forth fellowship and love, consideration and generosity and loving-kindness to every community on earth. Now must the lovers of God arise to carry out these instructions of His: let them be kindly fathers to the children of the human race, and compassionate brothers to the youth, and self-denying offspring to those bent with years. The meaning of this is that ye must show forth tenderness and love to every human being, even to your enemies, and welcome them all with unalloyed friendship, good cheer, and loving-kindness. When ye meet with cruelty and persecution at another’s hands, keep faith with him; when malevolence is directed your way, respond with a friendly heart. To the spears and arrows rained upon you, expose your breasts for a target mirror-bright; and in return for curses, taunts and wounding words, show forth abounding love. Thus will all peoples witness the power of the Most Great Name, and every nation acknowledge the might of the Ancient Beauty, and see how He hath toppled down the walls of discord, and how surely He hath guided all the peoples of the earth to oneness; how He hath lit man’s world, and made this earth of dust to send forth streams of light. "
--- end excerpt ---
Now, to be "fair and balanced", the above does NOT DIRECTLY tell bahais to actually respect or value the ideas of other people, including the "dissident foe", particularly when such a person presents evidence that contradicts the basic beliefs of bahaism. (unless "show forth... consideration" implies such respect.)
What the quotes does do, clearly, is to instruct bahais to not be arrogant, insularized, reactionary, hostile and insincere. As much as possible.